7 Keys to building A successful Salon T.E.A.M.

One of the most mentioned issues for salon owners seems to lie in the area of getting great staff and renters and building a great team.

Can you relate?

I thought I’d take the time to share some keys that will help you in building a great team.

Firstly, great staff members want to work at a great salon!

Every great team started before the team ever came on board.

Keys to building an amazing salon team.

There has to be a mindset shift that occurs first.

A mindset shift about what’s possible for you.

A mindset shift about the role that you will actually hold as a salon owner.

Many salon owners take on the endeavor of salon ownership because they were really great about getting clients for themselves as a hairstylist. They’re normally The Stylist that was really booked and saw the next level being Salon ownership.

However, what keeps many salon owners stuck is they never shift from the mindset of a busy hair stylist.

From the hairstylist that’s always getting more customers for themselves-to that of a salon owner.

They actually open the salon and find themselves working harder as a salon owner than they did as a stylist. Although that was never ever the intended goal.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

Firstly,

if you, the salon owner, don’t shift from the role of just a stylist to that of a salon owner(mentally). the focus will solely be on gaining customers for YOU and serving your clients

and the salon will be left to itself –pretty much!

One of the very first things a salon owner must do is shift from the mindset of a hair stylist who is constantly trying to get more customers for themselves, to that of a salon owner operating in the position of the Visionary to grow the salon.

When you become a salon owner the role changes. It must completely change. If you want to build a successful Salon with a successful Salon team.

The salon owner who never shifts their focus from that of being a single stylist will never have time to dedicate to building the people that come to work with them.

The ample time to properly market,

bring awareness to the salon,

create new profit strategies and growth strategies for their place simply won’t be there. They will be overwhelmed by taking care of their single clientele.Their main focus has to shift from making themselves more profitable as a single stylist to making the salon a profitable entity.

Okayyyyy. Here is that word AGAIN

VISION:

I don’t want to say that salon owners don’t have a vision for their place but the ratio of the number of salon owners who don’t is pretty high.

During a recent consultation with a salon owner who has been in business less than three years, after it was all said and done, I learned they had not thought about where they wanted to see themselves and their business in the upcoming years. This means planning is more reactive than proactive.

What does that look like?

You think of what you’re going to do pretty much on a day-to-day basis.

You respond to challenges as they come not thinking about what could possibly happen prior and have systems in place that would avoid it.

Without “Vision Clarity” for what you truly want and needin orderr to see your salon S.O.A.R…

you hire anyone, you do a lot of everything and spend the majority of your time putting out fires.

You don’t have a vision for your place where you’ve decided your culture, your growth and profit strategy.

Your days are dictated on a daily basis according to how the wind blows.

Vision has been a centralized focus for almost every talk I’ve given to salon owners. Whether it was a seminar that I hosted or live event, group coaching courses, my year-long Mastermind, you name it, we need to establish a clear Vision EARLY. Once I’ve helped stylist and salon owners understand their brand and vision Clarity, who they need to make it happen becomes clear.

Everything after aligns with it and becomes so much more simple. There’s not a lot of guessing, although there is room for much creativity in the process.

Knowing where you want to go is one of the most powerful principles you can apply to grow your salon and attract, an amazing team that wants to stay with you.

Prepare

Much of building a great salon team happens long before the team ever arrive.

Preparing your schedule and business model to include time to offer connection, training, and team building…

If 5 exceptional staff members were to come to your salon in the next 7 days are you prepared for them to work in your space?

Meaning:

do you have ample equipment

is the equipment up to date

is it running properly

do you have time to train them

do you have contracts already established

Is your schedule already established to be able to do this?

or

Do you tell them you’re going to get them trained in a few days and it never happens? (Not to the full anyway)

If that’s what you are experiencing, you have to adjust the space and time in your schedule. What you end up with is a T.E.A.M. that comes to work feeling lost and simply because they don’t know the flow or vision or expectation, they do what’s natural.

Whatever they feel they should do! Which may not align with your Salon Brand!

This flow normally doesn’t work well for you or the T.E.A.M. member.

…Prepare in advance.

Creating time to help new staff adjust is the start of building a great working relationship with your team! It is the time you set out to help them become even more clear about your vision for your place and how they can expect to grow in that atmosphere!

Make a list of some things that you need to do to be prepared to receive a great team coming to your salon.

If you are looking to grow, you often have to first SLOW DOWN!

Become an influencer.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to become famous! But you do need a presence that allows people who are considering coming to work at your space an opportunity to see you as someone who they can learn and grow from. Someone who is making moves.

A great staff member is looking for a great salon to work at, where there is a leader they would want to come and work with, grow with, and learn from!

Decide what a good team looks

Have you envisioned

What kind of team you want?

How you want them to function and flow throughout your salon business?

Will they be involved in community events?

Will they need to assist each other in the salon?

What kind of T.E.A.M. player are you looking for?

You must also know your own personality traits well. This helps to know what kind of T.E.A.M. compliments your style of leadership!

Write it down! Get clear!

Know what type of staff member or boot renter is ideal for your salon.

Do you need someone self-driven, or would someone looking for training and guidance be ideal for you?

What kind of staff member or booth renter will be ideal for your Salon Brand?

What character traits are important to you?

What level of skill set best suits where you are in your current phase in your business?

What are some things you know you can’t tolerate from a T.E.A.M. member?

Have you ever hired someone and kind of overlooked some important details about the new hire or renter because you simply needed to hire someone quickly?

How did that turn out for you?

My early hiring experiences in my salon…not so great! I had to learn to hire differently. Putting my vision at the forefront shifted everything!

Many salon owners hire staff and renters and in about 60 days they’re like, “Oh gosh. I didn’t see this in advance. Who in the world have I hired?”

It is often more expensive to hire wrong than to wait on hiring the right person for the T.E.A.M.

. Sit down and form a profile for the type of staff you would like to hire. Be sure to include a job description of the position to give the person enquiring about joining the T.E.A.M. I have include a sample job description here

This will help to eliminate so many disappointing runs with staffing and hiring.

Not that you are expecting people to stay with you forever, but it is great to have a good strong 5 years+ with great staff. Deciding who will be fit for your Salon Brand and T.E.A.M in advance will help tremendously!

Be able to clearly explain the vision of your Salon and where you are heading.

I discussed having a vision earlier as one of the important components for building a team, but being able to articulate it in a way that staff and renters can understand it’s equally as important.

Being able to clearly share the vision for your salon with your staff will give an understanding of why you do what you do in your daily operations.

It will help highlight things that are important that you may have to reiterate to overtime.

It helps to keep everyone on the same page and offer a natural attraction and elimination process as it relates to hiring staff and booth renters,

How will you share the salon’s vision with staff?

Building a great salon team is a huge asset to the forward-thinking salon owner who knows they can’t create an amazing salon with big GOALS alone!

Your Big Vision to create the salon business and lifestyle you love will always include PEOPLE! (A T.E.A.M.)

Success on Purpose,

Tanya

P.S.

I walk you through greater detail in my New Hire Bundle. You can purchase it and download it immediately if building a great team is one your immediate goals.